Surrenders in the Pacific

Once the Emperor gave his speech for peace, the Japanese gave their surrenders across the Pacific, but not all went as smoothly as the one held on the USS Missouri. As late as 31 August, according to U.S. Intelligence reports, the Japanese refused to believe the surrender reports and ambushed a SRD party and three of the Japanese were killed.

In the Ryukyus, things were far more simple. The senior officer in the Sakishima Gunto, Lt. General Gon Nomi, Toshiro, whose headquarters was on Miyako Shima, had been given authority to conclude a peace treaty for all Army and Navy forces in the Sakishima Gunto, Daito Islands and the islands in the Okinawa Gunto not already under American control. The official papers were signed on 7 September 1945, with General Stillwell presiding.

Gen. Hata at surrender table with the Soviets

General Shunroku Hata and his Army had taken only three weeks in April-May of 1944 to rout 300,000 Chinese soldiers in Honan to secure the Peking-Hankow railroad. He then moved south and then west to meet up with the Japanese forces in French Indochina. The 14th Air Force and the Chinese Air Force could not stop the offensive and by the end of May, General Marshall and the Joint Chiefs of Staff basically wrote off the Chinese Theater. Yet in the end, Gen. Hata signs the surrender.

Lord Louis Mountbatten with MacArthur

12 September, Lord Mountbatten accepted the surrender of all enemy forces in Southeast Asia in Singapore. Once again, the Union Jack was flying over Government House. But, due to Britain’s overstretched resources, Japanese soldiers were used to maintain law and order in the region. Europe’s colonialism was severely damaged and in 1947, Britain granted independence to India and Pakistan.

17 August, American parachutists landed near Nanking on the Wse-hsien interment camp. The Japanese were forced to protect the troopers from the unrest (actually chaos) erupting in the area between Communist and Nationalist armies. On 9 September, General Ho Chin accepted the Japanese surrender of China (except Manchuria, Formosa [now Taiwan] and Indochina north of the 16th parallel in the name of Chiang Kai. Mao’s forces stayed away even though Allied officials were present. By not being at Central Military Academy in Whampoa, he was in violation of the Potsdam accords and went on to accept his own regional surrenders.

Australian & British POWs on Borneo

The British had been slow in retaking Hong Kong and revolts broke out. The POWs were not receiving food and the Chinese population caused riots in the streets. The British civil servants eventually took over while the Japanese kept the order. 16 September, the official surrender took place, but not until November were all Japanese troops in the New Territories relieved, disarmed and repatriated.

After a meeting in Rangoon, Mountbatten arranged for the Allied forces to enter Siam and Indochina. Thirteen days later, he flew his 7th Indian Division to Bangkok to move onward to Saigon. They were to assist the French in securing the southern half of Vietnam again as a French colony. The Americans felt that the French had already bled the country dry over the past century and so here – the start of the Vietnam War that would last until 1974.

Thailand had survived by playing both sides while attempting to appear neutral. Japanese General Hamada, responsible for heinous POW atrocities, committed seppuku.

Indonesia was grateful to the Japanese for throwing out the Dutch and declared their independence. Although British and Dutch troops made attempts to return them to colonization, they resisted. The Americans moved in with orders to disarm the Japanese and then leave. It would take four years of fighting before the Hague would recognize Indonesia as a sovereign country.

Burma disliked the Japanese, but they had given them a taste of independence from the British. They took no part in the surrender proceedings. After the Japanese were shipped home and fighting resumed with the British, the independent nation nation was established 4 January 1948.

India had acquired their own army under the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere, but not independence. After the war, the British tried in vain to hold the country, but hostility forced them to grant India their freedom in 1947. The transition was overseen by Governor General Mountbatten.

Korea – September 1945 – being relieved of all weapons

In Korea, the Japanese were ordered to sweep Inchon harbor of mines before the American fleet arrived. The Japanese, here again, were needed to maintain order until Koreans could be trained to contain the mobs. Korea had actually been ignored as far as surrender and removal of the Japanese. The U.S. had gone there to disarm the enemy. The end result of the incompetent handling of Korea during and after WWII attributed to the Korean War.

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About GP Cox

Everett Smith served with the Headquarters Company, 187th Regiment, 11th A/B Division during WWII. This site is in tribute to my father, "Smitty."
GPCox is a member of the 11th Airborne Association. Member # 4511 and extremely proud of that fact!

You are very welcome. You are presenting history that appears to not being taught in our schools. I really don’t think that most people in Congress has an understanding of the things of the second world war.

Great post gp, one thing I like reading in your posts or discovering, is the beginnings of the lead up to the Vietnam war, for example the fallout from the second world war and the implications that precipitated the French/Indonesian war, hence the battle of Khe Sanh and subsequently the Vietnam war

I thank you for doing so much reading here. I really wish at least some of the connections between political actions from one even helped to cause another. Maybe we could then understand HOW to stop wars in the future.

This period of time was far more complicated than I realized, especially in terms of independence movements, the decline of British hegemony, and so on. In school, we often studied these are separate subjects (e.g., “the end of WWII,” “India’s demands for independence,” “Korean conflict,” and so on). The end result is that the interconnections stayed a little fuzzy, and the way the war influenced later events got lost.

I don’t know why we were taught in such a way, but I do know what you mean. If you were to read “The Imperial Cruise” by James Bradley, you realize just how far back the roots to all these wars connect.

Thank you very much, Tina for the nomination. I do not accept the awards though, as been my practice since I started, as I feel I merely report what our troops have done while it is they who deserve the accolades. I hope you are not offended by this, as I am personally flattered.

It’s alright! No worries. But I’d like to let you know that you are one of the bloggers I adore in the cyberspace. That award, whether or not you pass it on, is most genuinely thought of and given by yours truly. 🙂

Oh dear, don’t tell me this is the MLQ movie shown currently in our theaters? I am always fascinated with historical movies immortalized through motion pictures. I hope we’ll have more of this in our Philippine movies, Sir Roy! 🙂

Good news is always accepted with joyous gratitude when it comes from a loved one in the Military. Though I cannot publicize what this good news is since I do not want everyone in the whole world to know of its origin, I wanted to tell you that I have heard good news.

I wanted you to be the first one I told since you write concise articles on Military subject matter that I have been following for a long time and has been a friend to me during my loved one’s military deployment.

I will continue to be an obliged follower of your informative, important, and sometimes, humorous material for as long as I am on WordPress. It is a blessing to have you here, and whenever I see an article of yours spring up, I am comforted.

I learn so much from your posts. Thank you. Besides other things, your educated and intelligent info proves that the way the end of a war is handled is just as important as WHO “wins’ a war. ;-0
I appreciate the humor at the end – the George Washington “Jaws” comment is priceless..

It’s all so puzzling. Countries left the western sphere of influence and nowadays they are dreadful places, for whatever reason. North Korea, Indonesia, both North and South Korea, and present day Myanmar, previously Burma, where a Nobel Peace Prize winner has apparently overseen the genocide of all the Moslems in the country. Not to mention the ultimate slave society, China.

It was one of the contributing factors. I tried to explain further way back in the posts after the “About” page, but it takes a lot of things, accumulating and building up over the years to say exactly. (and I’m sure you know by now how I just “love” politics!!!)

Heck, we have people still holding on to the Civil War. Some just can’t let go and move forward. History is supposed to teach us our mistakes – and we’re supposed to learn from them. I know you do, you’re great at showing us significant areas preserved, etc. but not everyone uses their head.

After everyone thought it had gone smoothly, it became a very messy process. I recall my Dad telling me that they re-armed some Japanese POWs in Burma, to help keep control during numerous disturbances.
Best wishes, Pete.

I remember hearing on the news that a couple of Japanese soldiers were either captured or surrendered in the Philippines WAY back in the 1960s. They had never received word of Japan’s formal surrender. Somehow they had been cut-off from their unit during battle, and hid out in caves. They would conduct nightly “raids” to gather food and other supplies where they could find it. Talk about dedication! (Or, insanity?)

It would have been easier if it could have been dealt with like Europe, but with the Pacific being so huge – it became complicated. It think in the end, it was handled about as well as anyone could have expected.

I am just back from my trip to Japan. I visited the Peace Park on Okinawa and was pleasantly surprised that that seminal battle (where more people were killed than by both atomic bombs) was fairly covered. It was horrific but with a lot of nobility and dignity on both sides.

With the Japanese surrender, the Japanese failed in their aim to have “Asia for the Asians”, a euphemism for “Asia for Japan”. Instead some Asian countries ended up getting their own independence from other foreign rule.

Wow! This was a great history lesson, GP. I knew about Vietnam and India but not the other countries I never knew the Japanese soldiers had to keep peace in some of these areas, especially Hong Kong. Makes me more impressed with our former adversary. Good post.

One of the goals of Japanese war effort was to liberate Asia from European colonial domination (to replace it with their own of course). Seems they certainly succeeded. Countries got their independence and Japan has established itself as a formidable economic power even beyond Asia.

To large extent removal of colonialism in Asia was not by “Japanese help” but by weakness of Western democracies which simply were not able to keep Asian colonies in check as they had to face Germany in Europe. And main allied player in Pacific – was always ultra-anti-colonial. Btw, I like how that tension between UK and US is depicted in Churchill BoardGame (I love board games and that is one of my favorite https://theboardgameschronicle.com/2018/08/17/review-churchill/)